Campbell: Patterson’s pick shows BGCT study was right_71403

Posted: 7/11/03

Campbell: Patterson's pick
shows BGCT study was right

HOUSTON–Paige Patterson's election as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary proves the validity of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Seminary Study Committee, according to the chairman of that committee.

Bob Campbell, who chaired that committee in 1999 and 2000, currently serves as president of the BGCT. He is pastor of Westbury Baptist Church in Houston.

The BGCT committee studied all six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries and concluded all, to one degree or another, had moved away from the basic theological tenets and church polity practiced by a majority of Texas Baptists.

At the time, the committee recommended greatly reducing BGCT funding for all the SBC seminaries except Southwestern.

With Patterson's election at Southwestern, “the SBC seminaries have all changed their educational procedures from open, conservative, biblical, evangelical, Baptist scholarship and education to a closed, restrictive, fundamentalist, neo-Baptist indoctrination,” Campbell charged.

“If there was ever any doubt about the nature of the 'new' SBC and its seminaries, all doubt should be totally erased with the election of Patterson. It is more imperative now than ever before that our Texas Baptist universities and seminaries be recognized by all BGCT churches as the best place to receive a solid Baptist education.”

Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University, Truett Seminary at Baylor University and Hispanic Baptist Theological Seminary “must receive the BGCT's full support with prayerful loyalty and financial assistance,” Campbell said. “More and more Texas Baptist churches and other national and international ministries will now rely on the consistent, conservative, traditional, Baptist education produced through our BGCT-operated schools.”